1. Technical Field
An insert for use together with an absorbent article such as a diaper, an incontinence product, a panty liner or the like, which insert is substantially non-urine-absorbing, comprising a support sheet which has a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being treated with a skincare agent and the second surface being substantially impermeable to said skincare agent.
2. Background
A number of attempts have been made to produce skin-friendly absorbent articles such as diapers or incontinence products, sanitary towels, panty liners or the like. The surfaces which bear against the user's skin during use of the absorbent article are generally coated with, for example, creams, ointments, lotions or the like.
WO 96/16682 “Diaper having a lotioned topsheet” (Roe et al) describes a diaper with lotion on the liquid-permeable topsheet. According to said document, problems such as poor intake of liquid are solved by using hydrophilic lotion on the topsheet. The lotion is said not to interact with, for example, urine in the same way that a hydrophobic lotion would. The document also describes how cleaning the user's skin is made easier by the fact that the lotion is intended to be partially transferable to the user's skin in order, among other things, to prevent excrement from adhering to the skin. The diaper according to WO 96/16682 is also said to solve the problem of supplying therapeutic or protective components via small amounts of lotion which do not damage the liquid-handling capacity of the diaper and do not require special packaging.
However, the known diaper is associated with a number of problems. In any process in which lotion is added at high speed to a liquid-permeable material, it is in principle impossible not to partially block at least some of the pores on the liquid-permeable topsheet. Attempts at avoiding or at any rate minimizing this problem can be made by applying the lotion in lines or specific patterns on the liquid-permeable topsheet. However, the problem of blocked pores still remains in the coating pattern.
A further problem is that lotion can migrate downwards from the topsheet through the pores and thereby prevent the absorption body from taking up liquid. This problem is remedied by producing lotions and lotion stabilizers with specific melt temperatures which preferably will be completely or at least partially solid at room temperature and will begin to melt at temperatures preferably immediately below body temperature.
However, there are a number of problems in modifying lotion to obtain specific properties. For example, there is often poorer transfer of lotion to the skin, and sometimes this is even insufficient to give the desired skincare effect since the viscosity and the melt temperature have been changed. Despite modification of the lotion, the product is exposed before use, for example during transportation and storage, to circumstances, such as more extreme temperatures, which mean that the lotion can still migrate at least partially and thus impair the intake of liquid into the absorbent article by blocking the pores of the topsheet and thus indirectly also the absorption core. Migration of lotion to the absorption core can additionally cause a direct deterioration of the absorption capacity. The migration problems arise, for example, when the product is kept in a hot storage area. It may also be hot in the shop where the product is for sale, the product may be left lying in a luggage boot on a sunny summer's day, a pack of diapers may be left in the laundry room above a radiator until the time comes to use the pack, etc. Thus, there are obviously situations which cannot be safeguarded against merely by modifying the lotion so that it has a specific melt temperature.
WO 99/22684 “Web materials with two or more skin care compositions disposed thereon and articles made therefrom” (Roe et al) describes a web with at least two different kinds of skincare material. The web is attached at different points to a diaper, for example the topsheet, the liquid barriers or the like. Here once again, no particular attention is paid to the problem of blocking of the pores. In addition, there is not much scope for the user's requirements or desires regarding the position of the skincare agent. The document also points to a lack of understanding of an important problem in connection with skin care; the skin where it is desired to prevent or treat skin irritations, sores, rashes or bedsores must preferably be as undisturbed as possible. This means that the skin should be exposed to the least possible external influence. When using an absorbent article, for example an incontinence product or diaper, there is always a certain degree of chafing between the skin and the product. Chafing means that the skin becomes more susceptible and more sensitive to the negative effects of excrement and urine and to the environments which result in a product when it is exposed to this.
In those cases where ointment or lotion is applied directly to the skin before the absorbent article is secured on a user, some of the substance can still transfer to and penetrate into the topsheet and block the absorbent core with respect to urine for example. In addition, no continuous transfer of the skincare agent is obtained over the course of time. This means that when the applied skincare agent has been taken up completely by the skin, it is finished. Besides this, a person looking after a patient may find it unpleasant to apply a skincare agent directly to the skin, not only because the lotion or the like may be sticky to use, but also because the patient may have sores which are infected, and the patient may possibly have scabs which the carer does not want to deal with but has to. Similarly, the patient too may not want a carer to touch the sore or the sensitive skin directly with the hands.
DE 298 19 087 U1 “Pad oder Windeleinlage zur Trennung der zur Pflege oder Therapie auf Haut aufgetragenen Substanzen und der Windeleinlage” (Klaus) is a utility model which describes an insert which is intended to function as a dividing wall between the applied ointment, cream or paste and an absorbent article. The utility model also describes how the insert can be coated with an ointment, cream or paste which can also contain a biocatalyst and which, on the side remote from the skin, consists of web, foil or cotton intended to prevent the inner advancing of the substance on the outside diaper.
However, the known insert is only designed to keep the skincare agent on the skin and there is no discussion at all of the risk of deteriorated intake of liquid which the insert itself causes because of the blocking of the topsheet. In addition, the document does not mention nursing care problems such as bedsores caused by excessive loading of sensitive and perhaps damaged areas of the skin.